A Lecture on Serpent Ritual

Abstract

The observations on which this lecture is based were collected in the course of a journey to the Pueblo Indians made twenty-seven years ago.' I must warn you that I have not been able to revive and correct my old memories in such a way as to give you an adequate introduction to the psychology of the American Indians. Moreover, the impressions I gained were bound to be superficial even at that time because I had no command of the language of the tribes. Nor could a journey limited to a few months produce any really profound impressions, and if these have become even more vague in the interim I cannot promise you more than a series of reflections on those distant memories. I do so in the hope that the direct evidence of the pictures may carry you beyond my words, and give you some idea of a civilization which is dying out, and of a question which is of such paramount importance in our study of civilization in general : What elements are we entitled to call the essential characteristics of primitive paganism ? In the first place I shall deal with the rational (that is, architectonic) element in the culture of the Pueblos :-the structure of their houses with some examples of their applied art. In the ornamentation of earthenware we shall come upon the fundamental problem of religious symbolism. A drawing which I acquired from an Indian (P1. 44b) proves that what appears to be purely decorative ornament must in fact be interpreted symbolically. One of the basic elements of cosmological imagery-the universe conceived in the form of a house-is united in this drawing with an irrational animal conception, a serpent, which appears as an enigmatic and awe-inspiring demon. In the second place I shall speak of the masked dance of the Indians, which we shall study first as a pure animal dance, then as a dance associated with the cult of the tree, and finally as a dance with live serpents. A glance at similar phenomena in pagan Europe will eventually bring us to the question : to what extent can these remnants of pagan cosmology still obtaining among the Pueblo Indians help us to understand the evolution from primitive paganism, through the highly-developed pagan culture of classical antiquity, down to modern civilized man?